Mata Atari

Officially deceased since 1996, the seminal video game brand Atari has been resurrected. The Franco-American company that bought the rights to the name Atari from Hasbro announced Wednesday that it will adopt the legendary brand for its new name, shedding the less than legendary moniker Inforgrames (”r” included):

The Atari name is the most storied in video gaming, dating back to the early 1970s when Nolan Bushnell and a team of engineers at Atari created “Pong,” the arcade video game that was so popular that machines sometimes jammed because they were overflowing with quarters.

“What we have decided to do, following a very precise strategy, effectively is to adopt this brand Atari,” Bonnell told Reuters. “Clearly we feel like it is the symbol of the global company that we became during the last two years.”

The company is gearing up to make a big splash with a new Matrix 2 movie tie-in computer game, “Enter the Matrix,” but loveless teens of all ages can already purchase the company’s “Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee” for the Xbox.